Rob Kerr to head Essendon's football department

Jake Niall and Caroline Wilson

Brisbane Lions list and talent manager Rob Kerr has been appointed to oversee a radically restructured Essendon football department alongside Neil Craig, who has been promoted to general manager of football in charge of coaching, development, team and high performance.

Craig and Kerr will join Essendon's executive team in a move which was communicated on Monday night to suspended coach James Hird.

Craig, who has a two-year deal with Essendon, will oversee Hird should he return as contracted to coach next season.

"Neil is a very strong leader," said acting Essendon chief Xavier Campbell. "He is big on values and he is big on behaviours."

Kerr, who was released from his Brisbane contract on Monday and will start his new role back at Essendon immediately, will run the Bombers' list, recruiting and IT programs as well as playing a key role in the club's new focus on compliance. He last worked at Essendon as an assistant coach under Kevin Sheedy over 1998 and 1999.

Kerr, who is a former AFL Players Association chief executive,

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has a relationship with both Mark Thompson - whom he worked with on the coaching panel at Essendon in 1998 - and suspended coach James Hird, who was captain when Kerr worked at the club in the late 1990s.

He also is well known to Essendon's football director Chris Heffernan and Steve Alessio, who is the acting general manager of football, as well as long-time recruiting manager Adrian Dodoro.

The Bombers have been searching for a head of football since Danny Corcoran decided not to return to the club at the end of last year following his short suspension arising from the supplements saga.

Kerr moved from Essendon to the players' association in 1999 and replaced Andrew Demetriou as head of the AFLPA in 2000, remaining in that position until 2004. He has a PhD in psychology and has been working with the Lions since 2010 in his current position, having been placed there with the backing of AFL headquarters to try to fix the Lions' playing list and salary cap, which was bursting following the disastrous Brendan Fevola deal.

Michael Abrahams, the former legal counsel to the Australian Cricketers' Association, has been appointed as Essendon's integrity officer, a role newly created by the club.

Campbell said the restructured football operation was "not knee-jerk and not a band-aid. These appointments demonstrate how difficult the role of running football now is and how the scope was perhaps too broad for one person to handle.

"The structure was put in place and then we found two people we felt would allow the new structure to have longevity and sustainability," Campbell added.

"We believe we have put in place the structure and the personnel to creat a strong and sustainable football department."

Campbell remains favourite to assume the yet-to-be-filled chief executive's position which will be advertised over the coming months and is likely to be decided by June.